“How could you?”  The woman slapped Turk.  His cheek went immediately red after the blow landed, resounding off the empty walls.  He didn’t miss these details, had actually returned to warn her, his love.

She was once his love.

Now she turned on her heel and left, slamming the door as she left.  Her high heels hitting the ground in a fast rhythm, like a clock counting the time it took for her to get out of the hallway.  Her bags on her shoulders, she pulled along another rolling briefcase behind her.  Her blue dress flapping in the stormy wind behind her as she walked out of the hallway, into the brim of the platform the complex lay upon.  She lifted a long-nailed hand, calling out for a Flaxi.  Her tears mixed with the rain, causing her make-up to run down her cheeks, off her chin, to a new stain on her ragged dress.

Turk watched her leave, not trying to stop her.  He saw her lose a heel while rushing to the cab, his own eyes brimming with tears.  He didn’t mind losing earth, but didn’t expect to lose his world.  His everything.

“Sorry for your loss Turk.”  Dez walked out from the hallway, into the apartment, his shoes sopping wet, leaving puddles wherever he walked.  Turk didn’t turn to respond to his friend.  “Why did you do it?  Did you need the money that bad?”  Dez walked over to him, coming to a stop a few feet behind him, the door closing slowly.  “Or were you trying to get yourself to the top paying bounty in history?”

“Fuck off.”  Turk somewhat turned to Dez, his eyes still watching as the Flaxi floated in place.  His thoughts mirrored everything that was happening inside the vehicle.  She was fumbling for her card to pay the man.  Her hysteria causing her to drop her bag in a desperate attempt to get to the card faster.  She hadn’t counted on the card to slide under the driver seat, where it would stay unfound for the next few minutes.  She turned from the floor to regard the far-away window of the complex, where Turk was undoubtedly following her every move.  Turk forced a smile.  “It’s all for the best.”

“You sold us out, how is that for the best?”  Dez stepped closer to Turk, but still kept some distance between the two.  “You sold us all out!  Every man, woman, and child is damned because of your selfish act.”

“You’re welcome to try to kill me,” Turk turned from the window, laying against the wall to the left of it.  He pulled a cigar from his jean pocket and quietly lit if from a lighter that presumably came from thin air.  “Though it will be for naught.”

Dez was getting angry.  This was only man he couldn’t bluff, no matter what.  “What did they offer you?”  He held a ‘Pistol Overseeing Rad Killings’ in his pocket as he spoke.  When dealing with one of the Allz, you had to keep their wits about you, he knew that.

He was one.

“What do you care?  After a few minutes, your plan will go to hell, and you’ll hunt me down until the end of the earth.  Then, after that, you’ll continue until the end of time.”  Turk blew out a billow of smoke in the general direction of Dez.  He rubbed the tears out of his eyes with his short-sleeved T-Shirt.  His trenchcoats were thrown over a chair, behind the couch, behind Dez.  “Desmond, you were destined for a greater purpose than this.  Know that, when this is over and done with, you will find your answer for your purpose, long after the point has become moot.”

Dez swung his gun out of his pocket.  Nothing mattered now, nothing but the death of his close friend.  The gun’s dagger-like barrel extended out of the main body as it came up to its designated target.  Several things were wrong within the mind of Dez at the moment.  None of which he cared to go over with himself, much less the author of this story.  He never truly enjoyed killing, but this was an exception.

He needed to kill this man who was like a brother to him since he was born, Turk knew this as a fact, but couldn’t bring himself to pull out his own weapon, fearing for the overseen future of his companion.  He began to slowly walk past Dez as several beams of energy erupted around him.  He ducked as one struck the air where his head had once been,  standing back up and keeping his right arm back, keeping it safe from another shot where it was supposed to be.  This wasn’t a fight.  This wasn’t an assassination.  This was sad.

Dez was one of the best killers in the not-so-free-world, voted to have the best shot in the galaxy.  Several had shared stories of impossible shots he had accomplished, women he had conquered, and his inability to die, but none of a time that he had missed his mark.  Dez as notorious for his ability to kill anyone, anywhere, with anything.

Yet he couldn’t hit the ‘All knower’.

Herring rushed into the room, followed by John and his two brothers, his O.R.B.G.U.N. firing at the man who was also his friend.  The bullets just couldn’t land, lasers couldn’t singe, there was nothing to do but watch as this man do what he liked.  What he knew he would do.

Limero let out several shots from his tommy gun , knowing he wouldn’t hit, but enjoying the idea of  firing his fun at all.  John had a strict ‘no killing’ policy when they pulled their heists.  Procketstone, on the other hand, just stood there, watching the wonder of a man being so calm and collect with so many guns firing at him.  It made his gut wrench, nothing could stop this man.  Few things could stop one of the Allz.

Amidst the gunfire, Turk quickly turned over the couch, thoroughly confusing Dez, who jumped at him.

Not quick enough.

A huge explosion rocked the building, followed by several more, making smoke so thick come from the floor boards that no one in the current battle could see anything.  There was a cease-fire, followed by Dez yelling at the top of his lungs.  Herring rushed into the smoke, floor boards becoming flame, the building groaning in protest of the weight it could not support anymore.  People screamed in the floors below them, in pain, surprise, horror, but Herring needed to make sure they had caught the traitor.  Another boom echoed into the dreary, rainy night, as Herring made his way past some of the roof that collapsed.

Procketstone looked down the hallway, where a bright flash had just emanated from.  There stood Lial, very still in the hallway.  His notebook flying open as it fell from his hand to the floor.  Paper flew out, into the rain, creating even more debris from the ruined building.  Procketsone let out a gasp, drawing the attention of John and Limero.

“What is it?”  John wasn’t one for surprises, unless it was him who was doing it.  His brothers were very sturdy in their calmness, so for something to somewhat shake them was amazing.  Now that he thought about, he can’t recall them ever gasping.

“Aren’t the Allz...”  Procketstone searched his mind for the word, the image before him driving out everything from his mind.  “Immortal?”

John silently nodded, his eyes going wide as he backed to the doorway, glancing back to see if he could spot Herring, Dez, or the now hunted Turk.  He let out a gulp as he tried to prep himself for the worst.  He glanced around the corner, then fainted.  This isn’t good was the last thought that went through his conscious mind.

Lial stood there, looking down at his chest.  There was a gaping hole there, in the floor in front of him, and the following floors underneath.  How did he not see this?  He could see everything that was happening on earth, yet hadn’t seen anything about this.  His hat flew off as a gust of wind blew through the hallway, exposing one of his eyes on the center of the back of his bald head.

There he saw it.

It was a spaceship, disc in shape, spinning in place, like in the old movies.  Lial hated movies.

Then he fell to his knees, and the world went dark.